Contents

Blurb

When a defective Pokéball prevents Ash from recalling his Snorlax, he and his young friends must somehow heft this Pokémon's slumbering mass over a mountain pass to the nearest Pokémon Center.

Plot

A week has passed since the events of the previous episode, and Ash and his friends have been unable to get off Butwal Island due to the fierce current. Despite the scarcity of human food, Tracey concedes that their Pokémon will be well-fed, as much of the local plant life is considered safe for Pokémon consumption. However, when they try to pull up some edible flowers from a group of rocks, they come across a local Trainer named Gulzar, who is not pleased, as the flowers were part of a headband on his head. A series of faux pas made by Ash and Tracey prompt Gulzar to challenge the former to a battle.

Gulzar begins by sending out a Gloom. Knowing that Gloom is weak to Fire and Flying attacks, Ash intends to send out Charizard, but Squirtle is sent out instead. Sticking with Squirtle, Ash decides to use Water Gun, but the attack instead refreshes Gloom. Returning Squirtle, Ash tries once again to send out Charizard, but his sleeping Snorlax appears instead. Furthermore, Ash drops Snorlax's Poké Ball onto a rock, which damages it. Ash attempts to wake Snorlax up, but the Pokémon continues to sleep. Gulzar, desperate to get the battle started, has Gloom attack Snorlax with Solar Beam, and the impact causes it to wake up. However, it crawls towards Gloom and attempts to eat it, forcing Gulzar to recall Gloom. Still hungry, Snorlax eats Gulzar's knapsack lunch and his head of flowers, infuriating Gulzar to the point of tears. Ash tries to return Snorlax, but as Snorlax's Poké Ball is damaged, it cannot return. Gulzar, fearful for his life, flees and taunts Ash and his friends, claiming the nearest Pokémon Center, where they can have the Poké Ball repaired, is over a mountain.

After trying to tow Snorlax on rollers, Tracey hatches a plan to lure Snorlax into following them using an apple. Unfortunately, Snorlax manages to eat the apple before they can go anywhere. However, Misty realizes that by disguising Ash as an apple, Snorlax will be able to chase Ash as long as Ash can be ahead of Snorlax. Ash initially objects to the idea, and soon concedes as it is his own Snorlax. As Misty intended, this does manage to lure Snorlax all the way uphill. Upon approaching a river, the group builds a log raft, loads Snorlax on it, and begins to float down. However, when they set off downstream, they quickly encounter rapids and then a large waterfall that they all fall over. Though they survive, they believe they are drowning, but Gulzar shows up again to point out that they are in shallow water.

Later, the group makes it to the Pokémon Center, only to find a large crowd there, angry due to the fact that their food shipment is being hampered by the stormy sea weather. Nurse Joy manages to calm the crowd and assures them that the delayed shipment will arrive by airdrop. As the airdrop arrives, however, it is plucked from the air by Team Rocket, who quickly ransoms the food shipment for Pikachu, but Ash refuses to hand him over. The crowd is angered by this, but Gulzar jumps to Ash's defense. Seeing that Ash will not simply give Pikachu, Team Rocket propositions him to put up Pikachu against Meowth, who has been put in a super armor. Ash reluctantly accepts, but quickly finds out that Pikachu's Electric attacks are easily absorbed by Meowth's armor. Furthermore, Meowth's armor has a mechanized "Fury Swipes" attack that easily crushes rocks, and Ash claims that his original terms were unfair.

Taking this as a concession of defeat, Team Rocket demands Pikachu, but before anything can be done, Snorlax reappears, having woken up during the ordeal. Meowth turns his attention towards Snorlax, who is able to evade the mechanical Fury Swipes. In the process, one of Meowth's mechanical claws gets stuck in a rock and is broken off. Meowth resorts to a mechanical Skull Bash, but the attack does not faze Snorlax. Meowth then tries to use a mechanical Body Slam, but this attack turns out to be the armor launching Meowth himself at Snorlax. This attack also fails and Snorlax's thick body bounces Meowth into Team Rocket. Snorlax then sends Team Rocket flying with a Hyper Beam, and gorges on the food shipment itself.

Later, after Snorlax's Poké Ball has been repaired, the stormy waters calm down, allowing Ash and his friends to leave Butwal Island.

After Ash is attacked by Snorlax, he says, "I'm an apple for a day and I need a doctor right away..." This is a reference to the quote, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."

Errors

After calling back Squirtle, Ash incorrectly refers to Gulzar as "her".

When Snorlax begins chasing the disguised Ash, its feet were dark blue instead of the normal cream.

In the previous episode, Ash states that they would head to next city on the island where there is a seaport. In this episode, when Gulzar explains why its hard to get supplies to the island, he states there is no airport or seaport.

In the raft scene, Snorlax is considerably smaller than usual.

Snorlax's miscolored feet

Dub edits

In the English dub, after Snorlax was sent out by accident and the Poké Ball was broken, Tracey tells Ash, "I guess you'll just have to battle with Snorlax." Misty then adds, "That is if you can ever get him to wake up." Snorlax's gender wasn't stated in the original version.